Big surprise; it’s me again, Chess, the dog. You may remember me from such posts as “Memory and Desire” and all the other ones that were about me. Those were truly excellent. As for the other posts, the ones not about me, they’re kind of like staring out the window and waiting on a day when nothing is happening.

In fact, you may like to know that the world pretty much revolves around me. Not only the world, but the known universe. It did even when I was little. (I think that’s when I got that funny round dot on my otherwise excellent nose.) The minute I showed up here, it was all about me.

There’s a good reason for this. I’m quite delightful; in fact, a treat to be around. Which is why I don’t understand why the guy I live with left me alone in the house for hours yesterday and today. I mean I do understand it; it’s been snowy and dripping for days, drip drop drip drop (look at me, making another reference to The Waste Land), and the guy I live with was feeling really gloomy, because he says snow is gloomy (not to me) and when it all disappeared, yesterday, he decided to go the plant sale he thought he wasn’t going to go to because snow is so gloomy and, well, et cetera. He could have taken me with him and pretended I was a dog wood, but he didn’t. I stayed at home and stared out the window.

It was the RMC-NARGS plant sale and he got plants last night (those are in the wooden flat), and today (in the cardboard flat). I don’t know why he thinks he needs so many plants, especially all these dwarf conifers that he thinks are really interesting. They’re going to go in containers. So he says anyway.

He has a whole bunch of water in an empty trash can now, for all the new plants; it dripped off the roof right into the trash can, which was handy.

That’s it. He was gone all that time for mostly a bunch of dwarf conifers. Several forms of Pinus monophylla which he likes a lot (so much so that he goes crazy when people pronounce the name as though it were spelled “monophyla“, but as I’ve said before, he’s kind of a nut).

I told the guy I live with that since the sale was held at DBG he should take some pictures. It figures that he just took pictures of plants he likes. Like this Agave utahensis.

And this one, which is variety eborispina. Like the sign says.

A bunch of nolinas and yuccas.

This green thing was labeled Dasylirion wheeleri but the guy I live with thinks it’s either texanum or leiophyllum. You tell by the direction most of the teeth are pointed but he didn’t have his glasses with him, so anything is possible.

A nice Agave havardiana. Most of his rotted because it rained so much here last winter. Then the soil froze, like it would after it rained. He whined a lot about it, but got over it. He bought new plants.

Yuccas, Pinus monophylla, and Ephedra viridis.

Lots of yuccas. Not my favorite plants.

The guy I live with said he should have worked a whole bunch of overtime way back when and bought about seven of these for the front yard. Yucca faxoniana, I mean. He wanted to convince my mommy that he wasn’t a nut, so that’s probably why he never planted any.

The guy I live with said this was a really cool cactus, Opuntia violacea var. minor. The cactus isn’t one of my favorite plants either. The agave next to it had a rough winter but is okay; the guy I live with knows everything there is to know about dead plants. There’s a reason for this; I think it’s sort of funny but he doesn’t.

Finally (whew, huh), the one next to it, which was labeled “sp.” The guy I live with says you pronounced that word “spuh”. I think that’s silly.

I guess that’s all. This wasn’t as much about me as it could have been. Things don’t always go exactly the way I want them to, but the guy I live with says that’s the way life is. Listen to him being all philosophical. It’s supposed to snow again next week; I can hardly wait. I bet he doesn’t feel that way.

4 Responses to drip drop drip drop

This post speaks to my good taste as I picked up A. utahensis var. eborispina at Intermtn Cactus a couple of weeks ago. When I pointed out the potted A. parry on the deck was oozing and likely dead Judy gave me Opuntia violacea var. minor for free, which speaks to her good taste. And niceness.

Good taste is the best taste. I have no room for opuntias. Minor I do, but I think I have one that is half-alive. (That’s more optimistic than half-dead.)
I planted all, or almost all, the opuntias here in my neighbor’s front yard. She knew about it.